Guild Wars 2

Well while I think shadow trap would be useful in WvW, the others seem lacklustre, when other utilities give us more survivability or damage.

That being said, they could be really nice for soloing camps in an S/P setup.

Inflation is the rise in the Price Level (usually consumer price index-CPI) of an economy, and the devaluation of currency. The reason why things like ectoplasm are raising in price is because the influx of gold is allowing more people to spend their money on ecto/T6/Lodes and whatnot. Eventually prices will fall back down as the supply replenishes and the demand returns to normal levels (ie everyone this month was farming like mad to complete legendaries). The gold increase merely increased the money supply which is not inflation per se, but in real world economies is often regulated by an interest rate to make sure that output remains fairly equal to potential output. Inflation typically occurs when the cross between agreggate supply and demand (output) is greater than potential output, when the economy is in equilibrium. At any rate these prices issues are merely shifts in individual all though large markets, and will return provided people return to the old slew of mat-generating activities.

vinceftw.5086:

@Nearlight: I cannot believe what you just said. Initiative is the reason it’s wildly OP because you can daze, daze, daze, daze, auto attack, stealth (heal or blinding powder), sneak attack, daze, daze, daze. Very skilled, not OP at all.

I literally just started working with such a spec last night. I can’t play it very well yet but I also haven’t been spamming headshot.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/thief/?7.0|a.1h.h9.8.1h.h5|8.1h.h1k.a.1h.hd|1h.715.1h.715.1h.715.1h.715.1h.715.1h.715|411.0.21m.0.2x.0.1f.66.1f.66.1b.0|5.0.u45b.5.u37c|30.d|58.5n.5p.5o.5v|e

This is the build link I’ve been running, but with perplexity runes and Settler’s accessories over apothecary exotic ones.

Yeah, I use these runes too and I can assure you that they are not wildy OP on Thief due to the initiative system. I personally mainly activate them with daze on steal and scorpion wire.

^^ Zumy is right.

For my P/D thief I use a carrion armor and weapons, a celestial amulet, a rabid/unamed stat distribution ring, an apothecary ring, settlers accessories and a back piece that will probably be rabid when I can afford it.

I use the new Perplexity Runes with 30 in Trickery and Scorpion Wire to confusion bomb people with steal. I’m still getting used to it, but its a really strong spec.

I’m huge follower of your theory crafting work Osicat, back from when I used to main mesmer! I actually see condition mesmer and D/P thieves roam together fairly frequently, and they are very hard to take down by an unorganized group of players.

The best builds for WvW that use 30 is Shadow Arts are burst D/P buids and Condition P/D builds. D/P is better than D/D do to more gap closers, blinding powder to nullify melee burst and give you on demand stealth with <3seeker and a useful interrupt. for D/P most people put 30 in Critical Strikes and the other 10 is probably best spent on fleet shadow in acroabatics.

For P/D the best build seems to be 0/0/30/20/20, with carrion gear and mainly apothecary or even settlers trinkets. Both builds rely heavily on stealth in order to deal damage and stay alive.

Well ele has an underwater smoke field in earth, but thats a moot point lol

Dendail.4896:

nearlight.3064:

Dendail.4896:

I can’t help but notice that P/P is obviously a popular weapon choice among Thieves even within my own guild. I am quite aware most Thieves who visit the forums here already know that P/P isn’t exactly an upstanding weapon set but I decided to try something out. Making a meta P/P build.

It didn’t quite work so i’ll get that out of the way right off the bat but I did realize something. My build was 0/30/0/15/25 which utilizes the Ricochet trait. I actually believe this build using nothing but the signets can actually be quite devastating even possibly on par with many other builds if one change was made.

Pistol shots have a 100% chance to bounce to an additional target on a critical hit.

I think with this one change P/P would be something viable as it unleashes AoE Vulnerability or Blinds while dealing decent damage. Of course this would make it another utility range option like the Shortbow with different utilities but I think it would put P/P in a much better state than it is right now.

What do you guys think?

To be honest if you changed ricochet to bounce on crit, it would be a huge blow to pistol dagger condition builds that generally run carrion/settlers/apothecary and will often have 4% crit chance. The 50% bounce rate is fine and gives our niche condition build the ability to take on more than one target at a time effectively. Pistol/Pistol is honestly one of those stylistic builds like D/D or Sword/Sword on multiple classes, that isn’t very functional because the main hand skills dont synergize well with the offhand skills, even though in our case the dual skill is very nice but expensive burst, like a pistol whip sans cleave. But you know all of this, I think a P/P rework would be great too, but changing ricochet would do far more harm than good.

Originally I thought just a flat 100% without the crit required but felt that would make it too strong.

Yeah haha, it would make P/D builds able to take on two players in WvW a lot faster thats for sure, way too strong

Dendail.4896:

I can’t help but notice that P/P is obviously a popular weapon choice among Thieves even within my own guild. I am quite aware most Thieves who visit the forums here already know that P/P isn’t exactly an upstanding weapon set but I decided to try something out. Making a meta P/P build.

It didn’t quite work so i’ll get that out of the way right off the bat but I did realize something. My build was 0/30/0/15/25 which utilizes the Ricochet trait. I actually believe this build using nothing but the signets can actually be quite devastating even possibly on par with many other builds if one change was made.

Pistol shots have a 100% chance to bounce to an additional target on a critical hit.

I think with this one change P/P would be something viable as it unleashes AoE Vulnerability or Blinds while dealing decent damage. Of course this would make it another utility range option like the Shortbow with different utilities but I think it would put P/P in a much better state than it is right now.

What do you guys think?

To be honest if you changed ricochet to bounce on crit, it would be a huge blow to pistol dagger condition builds that generally run carrion/settlers/apothecary and will often have 4% crit chance. The 50% bounce rate is fine and gives our niche condition build the ability to take on more than one target at a time effectively. Pistol/Pistol is honestly one of those stylistic builds like D/D or Sword/Sword on multiple classes, that isn’t very functional because the main hand skills dont synergize well with the offhand skills, even though in our case the dual skill is very nice but expensive burst, like a pistol whip sans cleave. But you know all of this, I think a P/P rework would be great too, but changing ricochet would do far more harm than good.

I’d love an offhand torch so condition builds could potentially get burning. I think it would fit the saboteur nocturnal nature of a thief.

Sylvari Cultural even T2 medium is great for a thief. I also really like the CoE and Hotw sets.

I plan on using pain inverter along with perplexity runes on my P/D wvw condition thief build. By no means is it OP, but I think its an extra edge to give more condition diversity to classes that wouldn’t normally have access to it.

Zepidel.5349:

jonwar.4186:

so condition builds dont kill an opponent in 3 seconds, sorry but I actually look for fights and WANT my opponent to fight back. I swear some of you backstab thieves act like if we dont hit 11k backstabs we’re practicing withcraft or something. . I win more than my share of fights despite that list. I guess I just fight nothing but “brain dead” players all the time

/sarcasm

No sarcasm required, thieves are thieves stop trying to play a subpar necromancer with stealth. Its not about doing MLGPR0 DEEPS its about using the best spec available to us and learning how to use it well. You can keep trying to be a special snowflake, but you will always have done better as a zerker D/P thief in any PvP situation.

Although I’d rather not argue I believe the video linked below shows that condition thieves are very viable in WvW.

My Thief is Asuran, so I’m going to use perplexity runes on her, so I can get confusion with Pain Inverter/Scorpion Wire, in addition to the P/D bleed torment stealth spam!

^^ Ignoring you, I want to play a condition spec because I want to and I don’t care how many skills remove conditions, with thief especially its very easy to just put them back on and wear down their removals.

After leveling both a thief and mesmer I can say that mesmers really aren’t all that. They get boring very quickly and the DPS is bad. Engineers are great in WvW in both grenade and condition specs. Thief DPS is one of the highest in dungeons, on par with Warrior and conjurer elementalist, but like all melee zerker classes you need to know what you’re doing in every situation, using shortbow for ranged, sword/pistol for trash, and dagger/dagger or dagger pistol for bosses (chain backstabs).

Well since the ele really shouldn’t bother with conditions, magi would be the best choice although its still a subpar stat choice. I’d so go Soldier’s for WvW and transmute it to the TA skin. Celestial is also a good idea if you can craft it.

I can’t wait to stick these runes on my condition P/D thief in WvW! I’m asura too so even more confusion with pain inverter. Although I I might run D/P or S/P in the offhand for interrupts

Thief is one of the harder classes in my opinion. I played necromancer before it got cool (as in buffed to god status in pvp)and quit since now its the skilless faceroll class of pvp.
I’d even go as far to say thakittens harder than water/arcane ele, and harder than mesmer (summoning phantasms doesnt require as much skill kittenter builds though). The only class more difficult than the thief in my opinion is engineer.

The title says it all. Please comment or whisper me if you’d like to bring me along!

I have to do it before sunday since I had to miss bounties with my own guild this week.

Thanks for the replies guys! I think I’m gonna get a celestial amulet so I can use it on both more condition set and my zerker pve set, and I already have a Ralena’s Band from Fractals, and i guess I’ll just use exotic settler’s or apothercary accessories for the rest.

What traits from Trickery would you guys reccomend?

Hey everyone! Did this release put in a tradable aesthetic item akin to the catcher skins, desert rose or zephyr rucksack skins? I know the shoulders came out but I don’t know if you can get any that aren’t account bound.

I can’t get the settlers gear since I didn’t play during the southsun events! Hahah but thanks for your advice

I’d say guardian or engineer.

Everyone says that carrion is the way to go for condition theives in wvw, but what to do for ascended trinkets? I could just craft exotic carrion trinkets since there isnt a carrion ascended piece, so whats the best to use? I could go with rabid, shamans, aphothecary, or the weird rabid/carrion unnamed stat distribution. Theres also always celestial as well.

What do you guys think? And are points in deadly arts worth it for condition builds?

Zach.3264:

Mesmer is good, but the one thing I hated when leveling mine is the lack of speed. There’s no increased movement speed buff like a lot of other classes have and no on-demand swiftness either. After playing my Warrior, Ranger, Theif, Guardian for a while I feel like I’m moving extremely slow when on my Mesmer.

The mesmer speed problem is addressed by using a focus, and can be further corrected with air/centaur runes and the mirror heal.

To be honest necromancers really are the new faceroll class in pvp, whether the super fear condition build or the monsterminon clusterkitten cant even target the necro build (more so in t/spvp). Condition builds are easier for us to deal with than the monster builds, but you really do need 30 in shadow arts, (20 in acrobatics is great too). For dealing with necros, use surprise burst often and unpredictably, which is very possible on D/P. As one once told me when eles were bunker gods to focus your burst on them as soon as they leave water, focus your main burst on a necromancer as soon as he leaves deathshroud, for 10 seconds (maybe but not likely 7 with traits) he wont have access to his second health pool to absorb your burst and prolong the engagement, as well as fear/torment. Necro mobility is awful, and using shadow shot or steal they will never be able to really run from you. Their lack of mobility and lack of combo finishers on ANY weapon other than the boring staff, made me quit necro and play thief and ele instead.

As far as the enemy thief problem goes, I just feel that you don’t have enough toughness, so I would increase that by using some combination of soldiers/knights/celestial for your armor. The ascended accessories can stay zerker but switching the rings to cavalier would give you much more toughness without gimping you damage that much at all, as the precision loss is minor and the power loss is neglible, while crit dmg is the same and the toughness would really really help you.

kokiman.2364:

nearlight.3064:

I’m mostly mad that thieves and guardians are the only two classes that can farm Dunwell with 4 or 5 gambits after the nerfs. I feel like I’m losing out on a ton of money since I dont have level 80s of either of those classes.

You are losing out on one of the most boring grinds I’ve ever seen.

Then I guess its a good thing though since I’m having fun doing other things! I just get a little jealous when my friends buy their precursors and finish their legendaries in under two weeks of starting to work on them.

Ehh well mesmers still bring a lot of utility in PvE, but in general for most classes PvE isn’t about mobility as it is in pvp/wvw. In CoE you have stack all the time on most of the bosses and trash mobs.

I’d recomend mesmer with staff, or an elementalist for mobile professions. I will say that ele mobility has been nerfed a lot as ride the lightnings cooldown was more than doubled to remove the D/D god mode build. Thieves are the most mobile profession with so many gap closers with low/no cooldowns.

Mesmer has blink-teleports, a sword leap immobolize combo, portal, phase retreat on staff which is an amazing leap finisher/defensive move, and access to clone on dodge, vigor on critical hit, and some stealth.

Mesmers do lack sources of swiftness outside of focus offhand as most of their in combat mobility is teleports/leaps. Mesmer DPS only comes from shatter or phantasm burst really which is now easy to counter, meanwhile ele burst mostly comes from S/D in pvp and conjured weapons in pve. Thieves and Eles can out DPS a mesmer by far.

Well ele staff is awful outside of WvW zerging. In general melee and mid ranged damage options will always do more damage than long ranged abilities asin GW2 you have to move around a lot, making nonranged attacks a bit harder to land, so they do much more damage. Even caster classes are in your face a lot.

Mesmer DPS is general is the lowest of all the classes, relying on burst from shatters or phantasms that can be killed easily (although they have much more health in pve). The GS auto needs max range to be powerful and its not overly strong, and needs its other skills for slight AoE burst. Sword/Focus melee again with shatter tends to far outDPS the GS.

I’d reccomend either Engineer with grenades/elixer gun//pistols or shortbow thief. A death shroud necromancer could work too, but staff to supplement it is kinda boring outside of pvp, where necro is the 0 skill faceroll class of pvp.

Let me reiterate that ranged abilities are great for providing safe damage, but a character that only uses ranged abilities is gimping its damage potential in this game.

First of all read up at the Elementalist forums. Zerker gear on ele is great for pve (note dagger/focus or scepter/dagger might/fury stacking lighnting ammer builds FAR outDPS staff) but awful for WvW on most classes, especially elementalist. For PvE Soldier’s, Knights, or some combination of that armor, maybe a few valkyrie or celestial pieces would be greatly ideal, and remember that eles benefit more from toughness in general since we have so many ways to heal our low HP pool.

I’m mostly mad that thieves and guardians are the only two classes that can farm Dunwell with 4 or 5 gambits after the nerfs. I feel like I’m losing out on a ton of money since I dont have level 80s of either of those classes.

Azure.8670:

awesome thanks. what runes and sigils????

For WvW I wou;dnt go with the typical dirt cheap undead runes since we have lower toughness due to carrion over rabid. I’d go with either the new perplexity runes or tormenting runes from the new queen event. They’re a bit pricey now but they should drop, and you can craft them yourself. The tormenting runes give us more torment and enhance the torment duration on P/D 3. Perplexity runes would give us access to confusion, which although nerfed for WvW still increases our chance to pressure the enemy. For spvp Id go krait/afflicted for bleed duration.

For sigils, theres a lot of personal preference, but Id say either geomancy sigils, battle sigils, or condition duration sigils (malice, agony etc.)

Provided you understand each dungeon go with full zerker gear, and for air most people suggest daggers due to the lightning whip cleave, switching for fire burst/boons and then fresh air swapping back to air.

Do rageclaw, Dunwells damage was buffed so only theives and guardians can farm him now.

Elementalist in PvE does have the theoretical highest DPS in the game with Fiery GS 4/3 plus wall and no target. My friend got firey whirl to hit for 50K once. As far as pvp goes I vastly prefer scepter dagger air builds over the washed up bunker dagger builds, as the S/D lightning strike burst comes very frequently and enemies cannot easily predict or dodge it.

Theres so much negativity on this thread its almost poisonous!

Anyway I wouldn’t call thieves a noob class what so ever, I’d give that honor to warriors (in PvE) and necromancers (in tpvp/spvp). Coming from someone who also mains elementalist, one of the more difficult classes, I’d say that thief is one of the harder classes to use and by no means cheap as good players can and will predict your position and ruin you in stealth, so thats why you have to be even better at positioning to outsmart them. Spamming <3seeker or whatever is obviously a bad idea, as I honestly only use it with a pistol to generate stealth. That being said the thief builds I love the most are S/D because of all of its evades, and P/D condition now that it has torment.

I think DD would be a great offhand set for P/D for a condition build! I just feel like with the added torment on P/D 3, condition builds cant really pass it up. Death Blossom can be nice for a tactical AoE bleed/evade which is always nice, plus the poison on lotus strike is helpful too. Since P/D is ranged you probably wouldn’t need a shortbow!

Just take like 30 in shadow arts and probably 20 in acrobatics, for the sustain, and then put the rest either in deadly arts for poison/venom improvements and the duration if you go that route, or trickery for improvements to caltrops and riccochet.

Thanks guys, I decided to go with Thief, and its a lot of fun!

And yeah I like ele because theres a good amount of burst/sustain through switching the attunements and whatnot, and my lightning hammer build is perfect for PvE encounters.

I think I’ll continue to enjoy the thief as I gradually level it to 80

S/D is typically regarded as the duelist weaponset for ele. In pvp I would go with a fresh air set up, either 0/30/0/20/20 or 0/30/0/10/30. I’d go with a valkyrie amulet and zerker jewl, and basically you’ll be maintaining fury by quick attunement swaps and criting all the time. D/D can also do this too, but you lose the scepters toughness boost and blinds/lighnting strikes.

I main an S/D elementalist, and I absolutely love it, but I’m also looking to get another character that I can have fun with in pvp and WvW on the side. I’m thinking either thief or engineer. I also have a level 80 necro and mesmer but I hate them haha. I am at 4.9K achievement points and will use the scroll on that next character.

So how are those two classes/build set ups for WvW? My main concern for thief is that players that can counter stealth will generally win unless I develop a ridiculous skill level with thief, meanwhile after playing ele I think I can handle playing a tanky grenade or condition engi, but the kit system seems rather clunkily implemented.

my only concerns about P/P is that you’re basically dead if unload gets reflected, and while the offhand pistol skills give tremendous utility, the mainhand ones are mediocre condition applying auttoattacks. But nice job, you do a great job showing off the risky ranged burst potential!

I feel mostly comfortable with elementalist in most game modes. Although 20 water and 30 (or 20) Arcane is required to be tough to kill, I feel like we can do a lot. The Lightning hammer might/fury stacking builds are fantastic for PvE, and can outDPS most other classes barring glasscannon warrior. Meanwhile in WvW roaming the burst from S/D is very good when on the move, and I love how using firey greatsword 3 and 4 can be a lifesaving technique. All in all the only thing I don’t like about the elementalist is that the scepter autoattacks are very bad, other than that I enjoy playing ele as a bursty DPS class.

I think necro is potentially a great roaming buddy. Although they have low mobility, launching a backstab burst combo the moment a necro uses corrupt boon to remove that protect/regen/aegis/stability is quite the strategic instagib.

Hello, after dumping a ton of time and money into my elementalist, I’m finally starting to feel underpowered in that class and I’d like to possible switch my main to a thief, however I’d like to know how great they are in PvE content. My only experience with thieves is in spvp.

So please tell me possible builds, weaponsets, strategies, gear advice, and whatnot. Thanks!

In Caithe’s armpit

transmuted to quaggan